In regard to calculating of costs of an enterprise, a cost allocation process whereby costs incurred in respective cost departments (subsidiary departments and production departments) are distributed between respective departments is important. Examples of known cost allocation methods are a direct distribution method, a step distribution method, and a reciprocal distribution method.
The reciprocal distribution method, in which costs are distributed by considering services reciprocated between departments, increases accuracy of cost allocation and cost accounting and provides information about support costs of a service-providing department, thus providing important information regarding decision making for enterprise management.
However, calculation of cost allocation according to the reciprocal distribution method involves continuous reciprocating services between cost departments, and thus the calculation of costs is complicated. In particular, when calculating costs of a company having a large number of departments using a computer, an operation memory of a very large capacity is required, and it takes a long time to calculate the final costs. Accordingly, a cost accounting system according to the reciprocal distribution method requires a very expensive high-performance computer.
Due to the above problem, although cost accounting according to the reciprocal distribution method provides important and various information related to enterprise management, a function of a module corresponding to cost accounting according to the reciprocal distribution method is restricted in many ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems that are on the market. Also, since cost accounting according to the reciprocal distribution method requires a high-performance computer system, costs consumed in the cost accounting according to the reciprocal distribution method are high.